Poker roulette refers to several live-action and online poker games. The live-action version, which is described below, has been described as a "spin of Russian roulette." In poker roulette, players match cards to divide up the deck between themselves into stockpiles from which they build the best poker hand possible. The rules of poker roulette are such that royal flushes are more likely to occur than in a normal game of draw poker, but it is also likely that some players won't have enough cards to make a hand that requires 5 cards. Read on to learn how to play poker roulette.

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Steps

1

Assemble the players. Poker roulette requires a minimum of 3 players and a maximum of 5 if you're playing the game with a single deck. For each additional 5 players, you'll need another deck of cards.

Each deck of cards used should include both jokers.

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2

Determine how suits will rank in the game. Unlike most other poker games, poker roulette requires ties to be broken by suit. Cards are ranked numerically as in most poker games, with aces high and deuces low.

3

Deal each player 1 card, face down. This card is the "stock" card, the first card in the players' card stockpiles. Players can look at their stock cards but are not permitted to show them to their opponents.

4

Deal each player 2 cards, face down. These cards are the "active" or "pocket" cards.

5

Deal a card to the center, face up. This is the match card, to be matched by the players' active cards.

6

Have the players turn over their active cards. Players can add matching active cards to their stockpiles according to these rules:

If either active card's suit or number matches that of the match card, the player adds that card to his or her stockpile.

If both cards match the active card numerically, the player adds both cards and the match card to the stockpile.

If both active cards match by suit, the player adds both active cards to the stockpile, but not the match card.

If 1 active card is a joker and the other active card matches the match card, the player adds both active cards to his or her stockpile.

If the match card is a joker and neither of the player's active cards is a joker, the player adds both active cards to his or her stockpile.

If both of a player's active cards are jokers, or if the match card is a joker and 1 of the active cards is a joker, both active cards are discarded.

7

Move the match card (if unclaimed) and all cards that didn't match it to the discard pile.

8

Deal new active cards to each player. Players who matched at least 1 of their active cards get 2 active cards, while players who could not match either active card to the match card get only 1.

9

Deal a new card to the center and repeat the matching process. Continue this until the draw deck has been exhausted. Players may bet, raise, call, or fold during the card-matching phase.

10

Have each player assemble the best poker hand possible using the cards in his or her stockpile. Poker hands contain a maximum of 5 cards, but players with stockpiles of 4 cards or fewer must make the best possible hand with the cards they have. Highest hand takes the pot, with ties broken by the agreed-upon suit ranking. Hand rank is as in normal poker: a royal flush beats a straight flush (both can only be made with 5 cards), which beats 4 of a kind (may be made with a 4-card stockpile), which beats a full house (requires 5 cards), which beats a flush (requires 5 cards), which beats a straight (requires 5 cards), which beats 3 of a kind (may be made with a 3- or 4-card stockpile), which beats 2 pair (requires at least a 4-card stockpile), which beats a pair (may be made with a 2-card stockpile), which beats high-card single.

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Another version of poker roulette is an online game available on the Wild Viking casino website. It differs substantially from the game described above, taking its name from the fact that it allows both poker- and roulette-style bets, along with a progressive jackpot.

While a number of poker games that use wild cards allow for 5 of a kind, and the use of multiple decks with a large number of players allows for 5 of a kind hands, the rules of poker roulette as given above do not cover this possibility. Players may either choose to rank 5 of a kind hands according to another poker game that allows them or treat 5 of a kind the same as 4 of a kind.

Warnings

Although it is theoretically possible in the version of poker roulette described above to deduce what kind of hands your opponents can make, doing so requires having a memory that can track the number of cards in each player's stockpile and which cards have been matched by whom.

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